Customer Reviews

The Columbia Guide to African American History Since 1939 (Columbia Guides to American History and Cultures)

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This book explores the central developments in African American history since 1939.

The first part (about 90 pages) provides a concise and compelling historical narrative broken into five time periods. It begins with a discussion of the various approaches to interpreting black history post-1939, including revisionist, vindicationist, Afrocentric, integrationist, nationalist and multidimensional approaches. The authors take a multidimensional approach, demonstrating that "The Movement" was/is not a united front, but rather a struggle waged on many different fronts in different ways with different objectives - sometimes at cross purposes. Also, things which seemed like progress at the time (e.g. school desegregation) are now being reexamined.

The second part examines seven "key themes" including business, music, military service, sports, and literature, plus the answer to a question which has cropped up numerous times on my listservs lately: why and when did we become Negro/black/African American, who prefers which term, and why is self-designation important?

The third part provides a chronology, the fourth A-Z entries with a paragraph or two about key persons and organizations.

The final section (about 70 pages) is a substantial Resource Guide to textbooks, general references, military records, manuscript collections, film, video and recordings, and more. The various bibliographies are annotated, but the listings of Libraries/Museums/Historical Sites, Newspapers/Periodicals/Journals, and Web Sites are not, and that's the only weakness I found here. (Note: I have an extensive annotated listing of libraries/museums/historical sites by state at AfroAmericanHeritage dot com.)

This book belongs on every library shelf - public, academic and high school. For general readers, it provides a clear and compelling introduction to a complex era. For students and instructors, it provides a valuable framework and many tools for further exploration and research. I'm sure it will spark many people to dig deeper and for that, I highly recommend it.